Witness Protection Agency
by aisha12894
Summary: Hinata's life was simple. Yet all of that changed when she witnessed a most heinous crime, which cause her to be the subject of numerous threats on her life. She most now trust her life in the hands of a certain blonde haired blue eyed cop.
1. Chapter 1

The sound of a cell phone vibrates against a wooden bedside table. The owner extends an arm out from underneath white bed covers.

It continue to rings as the hand feels around until it comes in contact with the shaking metal, grab it in its grasp, and brings it to their ear.

A drowsy "Hello" was spoken into the phone reciever since the person was too sleepy to even check the callerID.

"Hinata, where are you?" A concern voice inquires to the current sleeping lump, whose name was Hinata.

"It's like twelve in the afternoon, Sakura. I have some time." Hinata mumbles when she pops her head out from underneath her sheets.

The individual, whose name was Sakura, pause for a moment in order to exchange words with someone on her end, "I'm talking to her now." "Yeah she will be here on time."

"Look Hinata, I'm going to need for you to get your clock fixed, honey. Its fifteen minutes past five and Kurenai wants us all here by six to go over the new routine."

It was then that Hinata cast her sights to her clock as the red lights were in the shape of a five, a colon, and a fifteen that soon flips to sixteen.

"Oh crap!" Hinata exclaims as she throws the covers off of her body and dashes toward her personal bathroom.

'_Don't have time to take a shower but I can wash up a little.' _She thinks to herself when she checks out her reflection in her mirror.

She scrubs all of her important feminine areas, washes her face clean of the cleanser that she uses, brushes her teeth, and rinses her mouth out with mouthwash.

Hinata glimpse up at her clock that now reads 5:20pm, which means that she spent at least four minutes to make sure that she was clean.

'_The ride to work should be about twenty-five minutes. I should dress in my workout clothes so I won't have to change when I get there.' _She inwardly works out a plan to spare her some time.

She rushes over toward her closet and plucks a pair grey leggings, a black tank top, a grey midriff and her black dance shoes.

'_Where did I put that bag at?' _she inwardly ponders as she quickly scan the area of her walk-in closet.

A sigh of release escapes her mouth when her sights land on a white duffle bag that had "Ice" and "Dollhouse" stitch in elaborate black cursive script.

Hinata focuses on changing her wardrobe while monitoring the time that she had left on her clock.

'_I can still make it.' _She reassures herself once she finishes changing clothes and notices that it was 5:23pm.

She retrieves her cellphone, wallet, and a set of keys from her side table and dashes to her apartment door opens, closes, and locks it behind her.

Hinata glides down two flights of stairs and the four additional steps that lead her out on the busy sidewalk. She waves her right hand up and down while shouting "Taxi!"

A yellow cab with alternating black squares on the side with "Taxi" scripted in bold and chunky letters rolls up to the sidewalk, where she was standing.

"Where to?" The taxi driver inquires once she enters inside of the cab and slams the door behind her.

"Dollhouse" Hinata simply replies once she was able to catch her breath and adjusts herself to the cab's setting.

The driver asked no further question, shifted the car to drive and drove away from Hinata's one bedroom apartment.

'_This might be a long day.' _She concludes to herself while she unleashes yet another sigh and ease her tense muscles in her shoulders.

2222

"Hey Sakura, did you call Hinata?" a feminine voice pose to the woman name Sakura, who lay her cellphone inside of her vanity's drawer.

Sakura peers in the direction of the voice and comes face to face with a set of green pupils.

A woman, who was about three years her senior, stands in front her with blonde hair was styled in a weird fashion of four ponytails.

"I just got off the phone with her Temari. She claims that she didn't know about our early rehearsal time." Sakura explains the situation to the woman name Temari.

"Since when has the old bat been concerned with someone other then herself?" A high pitch feminine voice interrupts as Sakura and Temari's attention to turn toward the source.

"If it isn't my favorite conceited blonde counterpart, Ino. You seem to be in a good mood since you're talking to me." Temari retorts with a small smile and a shrug of her shoulders.

The woman name Ino cracks a similar smile before she flings her purple duffle bag, with "Princess" stitch in silver, underneath an empty vanity.

"I'm surprised that you're here this early." Sakura chimes in when she glimpse over to her neighbor on her right.

Temari nod her head up and down while her ponytails shake from the movement. Her eyes soon landed on Ino's left ring finger. "Uhm, Ino…is that what I think that is?"

Her question snares Sakura's attention, as she tracks Temari's gaze until her eyes land on the rather nice rock that graced Ino's finger.

Ino knew sooner or later that one of the girls were going to find out but she wished that all the girls were here so she could flash it in all of their faces at one time. Yet, she was sastified with Temari and Sakura's reaction enough that she responds with an "Oh this little thing?"

Sakura secures Ino's hand within one of her hands in order to inspect the diamond that rest on her left ring finger, "Don't tell me that _he_ proposed."

Ino notes her friend's facial expression and snatchs her hand away from her grasp, "And so what if he did?"

Temari rests her right hand on Sakura's left shoulder as a symbol to show comfort before she asserts with "Don't be surprised Sakura, dear. Ino clearly is head over heels in love with the money or she would have never accepted the old fart's proposal."

Sakura simply shakes her head left and right in disappointment and says "He's like _three_ times your age plus more."

Ino was slightly sadden that her friends did not take well to her news of her engagement as she thought that that they would. Yet, she would not allow them to rain on her parade of joy, which seem to rain with a flow of never ending money.

The girls were so engross in their conversation that they did not hear the dressing room door open and close. "What's all the noise in here about?"

The trio whirls their sights to the door to see a brunette haired woman, whose hair was styled in two circular buns on both sides of her head with bangs framing her face. She totes a blue duffle bag with "Panda" stitch in yellow.

"Ah its Tenten…maybe she will agree to my good news." Ino suddenly speaks up while she brings both of her hands together with a smile on her face.

The woman name Tenten raise an arched eyebrow at the platinum blonde woman's statement once she stroll over toward her personal vanity space.

"That's what you think." Temari mutters under her breath when Ino struts over to Tenten.

"Are you ready for it Ten?" Ino inquires while the brunette haired woman nod her head before she flash the large sparkling diamond to her.

Ino silently observes Tenten examine the engagement ring on her finger and faces the other girls with a nod of her head.

She releases a whistle of appreciation, "That's a big rock Ino. That means he wants you to do it with him if he gave you that."

Ino's face scrunches up after she listens to Tenten's statement before Temari breaks out in to laughter, "See what I tell you! Even Ten agree with us."

"Ah shut up Temari! I know someone who will truly appreciate my good news despite what you'll think." Ino declares with determination in her tone.

"If you're talking about Hinata then of course she will. She's into that lovey dovey kind of stuff." Temari proclaims while she waves Ino's declaration off with her hand.

'_I show you that Hinata will be on my side. Just you three wait!' _ Ino thinks.

2222

Hinata observe the ever changing urban scenery from the inside of the taxi cab when the driver turn down a familiar street.

She checks the time on her cellphone when she notice that it was 5:40pm, which meant that she had twenty minutes left.

"Dollhouse ma'am," the taxi driver broadcasts her final destination.

Hinata digs inside of her duffle bag, locates her wallet, pays the fare, and exits from the cab.

After she emerges from the cab and out onto the sidewalk, she beholds the lights that read "Dollhouse" in cursive. There was a black background with purple spray paint effects behind the word to make it appear eye catching.

'_I might as well head in while I still have some time left.' _She reminds herself before she strolls over to the side of the building where the employees would use as an entrance and exit.

Once she entered the building, the bar was off to her left with enough stools to serve about ten or more people. The circular shape stage with a runway was set on the farthest side away from the entrance with black curtains preventing patrons from seeing the girls get ready backstage. That floor was covered in a soft black material rather then the wooden panels at the bar while the walls were a hue of grey.

There were square tables accompanied by high stool chairs with silver circular guard rails that separates the exclusive V.I.P. section, which had dark purple plush love seats with circular tables and was position closer to the stage.

It was then that she spots the bartender, with her long brown hair, wiping down the surface of the bar with a cleaning rag.

"Hey there Ayame," Hinata greets the woman who halts in the middle of her task, faces Hinata, flashes a smile, waves her free hand, and greets, "Hello there Hinata."

"Are you getting ready for tonight's crowd?" Hinata asks Ayame once she draws near her at the counter.

Ayame nods her head up and down and poses "Shouldn't you be getting ready yourself?"

Her questions cause Hinata to glance up at the clock to see that it was 5:47pm.

"Silly me, how could I forget? It was nice talking to you Ayame." Hinata quickly states before she playfully hits herself upside the head.

"Same here, Hinata," She agrees before she watches Hinata's retreat down the hallway to the girls' dressing room.

2222

Ino, Temari, Tenten and Sakura were biding time by busying themselves with their own individual activities.

Hinata thrusts the door to their dressing room open and closes it back when she recognizes that all of the girls were in the dressing room at their vanity.

She watches Ino filing her nails and chewing gum at the same time. Temari had her headphones in her ears and drowns out the others. Tenten makes an effort to solve a crossword puzzle in the daily newspaper. Sakura casually flips through one of the hottest and latest fashion magazine without too much a care.

Before Hinata could even publizes her presence, the back door suddenly opens and reveals an older lady in her early thirties with raven-black hair and bright red eyes. She wore a simple black leotard with grey leggings, and black dance shoes as her wild hair reached slight past her shoulders.

Her presence was immediately recognized not only by Hinata but by the other girls as well since they quickly snapped their focus the woman that stood in the middle of their dressing room.

"Where is Karin?" The older woman poses to the group when she realizes that there was one more person missing from the group.

The girls exchange looks of "how could we forget about Karin?" before they look back in the woman's direction.

"I'll text her." Sakura steps in before she shots the red haired woman a quick text about their practice time.

"Alright then ladies…" she speaks up after she scans the room when she says to the group, "...let's get started shall we?"

Hinata chose to use that as an opportunity to place her bag down in her personal area while the other girls file in a line with each other. They travel the same path that Hinata just used, except they veer backstage on to the stage.

"This will have to be one of the cleanest and sharpest performances that you six will ever have to do here at the Dollhouse." The woman states in a stern tone during the girls' routine stretches.

"It's that serious, huh Kurenai?" Temari directs to the older woman as she leans forward to touch her toes.

"Let's just say that the boss might be in tonight." The woman name Kurenai warns them as they to break from their stretches.

'_So it is serious then.' _The group of girls shared similar thoughts in unison.


	2. Chapter 2

"The new setup that's going to happen for this review is that we're going to do two group performances, individuals, and pairs dance routines." Kurenai reads to the group from the clipboard once they completed their stretches.

"Oh…we're doing _pairs_ now?" Ino curiously poses with a confused expression on her face.

The girls begin to exchange approving looks about the idea with one another.

"I think I might like this new direction." Temari comments once she steps in line with the other girls.

"Here's a preview of the medley that you girls will be dancing to." Kurenai responds when she deem that the girls were ready to learn the dance.

"You got that?" she questions to the group once she cuts off the stereo and faces the girls, who merely nod their heads in agreement.

"The line-up is as follows: first group performance, first pair performance, first two individuals, second pair performance, second individual performance, final pair performance, final individual performance, and the final group performance." Kurenai lists off the order of the review.

"So who are the pairs?" Hinata ponders since she quietly wonders which one of the girls she was going to be paired up with.

Ino slightly nudges Sakura's side with her elbow and mutters to her, "I bet that she paired us together."

Kurenai peers at her clipboard once again and broadcasts, "Temari and Tenten you have the first pair performance, Ino and Sakura have the second pair performance and Hinata and Karin have the final pair performance."

"If there's no further questions lets quickly get to work. You have two hours to learn this routine before the club opens for tonight." Kurenai explains to the girls.

2222

"From the top ladies, its 1…2…3 then a kick," Kurenai instructs the girls as she dances around with a wooden stick and twists it forward to show her point.

The back door to the club open and close but due to the loud music on the inside no one heard or saw a red haired woman quickly sneak in.

'_It looks like they're already learning the routine.' _The woman assumes while she changes from her street clothes to her workout outfit.

She chucks her red duffle bag with Velvet stitched in white underneath her personal vanity.

'_Kurenai won't be too happy to see that I'm late.' _She inwardly notes as ventures out of the dressing room and toward the stage, where Kurenai and the other dancers were.

"Much better…ah if it isn't Karin! I'm so glad that you were able to join the group this afternoon." Kurenai greets Karin once she spots the red haired woman shuffle about on the stage.

The girls turned their focus on to the red haired woman to see her facial expression held genuine disapproval of her actions.

"Hey guys," she greets them as she squeezes in her spot between Temari and Ino while she receives curt "hellos" as a response from the other girls.

Once the girls were set in place, Kurenai scans from her left to her right and pronounces eac of their names._ 'Hinata, Tenten, Temari, Karin, Ino, and Sakura.'_

"Now that everyone is here, I think we can go ahead and get started so we can make this deadline." Kurenai reminds the girls with a tap of her stick.

2222

"On the count of three…1…2…3…Go!" A voice whispers to the group before a loud boom could be heard from the inside and the outside.

"Go! Go! Go!" A voice demands as men clad in protective gear charge within the medium size home as they uphold their safety and remains behind a large rectangular shape shield.

"Clear!" the voice behind the shield declares, which cause the men behind them to flank out and search the house.

"Clear" could be heard throughout the house as more men clad in protective gear enter the residency.

"Make sure you check every nook and cranny for any signs of illegal substances." A voice orders once silence settle in the house.

A resounding "Yes sir" can be heard throughout the house as the voice who issues the order treks around to observe the process of stripping down the house.

"Are you sure that the lead we got from Ibiki was legit?" Another voice poses to the man that was in charge.

"That's what we are here to find out." The voice retorts before he halts in the middle of their stride.

"Is there something wrong, Kakashi?" The voice inquries to the man in front of him after they nearly collide with the man.

The man name Kakashi ignores the question as he squats closer to the surface of the hallway floor. "Are you sure you're feeling alright?"

Kakashi knocks one of his clenched fists against the floor as the sound resonate from his sudden contact. He hooks his arm around to his utility belt, draws a pocketknife, slices a square in the carpet and tugs the carpet backward that exposes black boxes.

"Well what do you know. The rat was right!" the man who accompanies Kakashi shouts in disbelief with both of his fists against his waist.

"One thing you should always remember Asuma, Ibiki always get the answers." Kakashi reminds him when he releases the carpet from within his grasp.

The man name Asuma nods his head up and down in agreement, "Never doubt the man with the ability to rack other people brains for information."

Kakashi inspects the substance, rubs it between the tips of his thumb and index and whistles in order to catch everyone's awareness.

"That's a lot of…boxes." An officer expresses when they note the numerous rows of stacked black boxes that sit in the middle of the hallway.

It was at that moment, Kakashi and Asuma slide white gloves on their hands so their prints because it was the standard for collecting sensitive items and not to tamper evidence.

Kakashi raises the black box to his field of vision, tosses it up and down and remarks "It is lightweight."

"Here...catch," He lobs the box in his hand to the brunette, who hovers over with a curious look on his face.

"You're right." He agrees with the silver haired man, who continues to withdraw more black boxes from underneath the surface of the hallway floor.

Kakashi pops the lid of the box and examine its contents that was plastic baggies filled with white powdery substance.

"Did we hit the jackpot?" Asuma inquires when he hefts the lid of the box and just like the one Kakashi was examining, there were plastic baggies of white powdery material.

While Asuma rattles on, Kakashi cuts a slit through the plastic, dips his finger in the grainy substance and tastes the material.

"Yep, its cocaine hydrochloride but it has already been altered, which means that it was just waiting to be shipped out on to the streets." Kakashi renders when he returns the bag back inside of the box.

Asuma reaches for his radio, presses the orange button, and speaks "Delta team this is Alpha team, what's your 10-20 (location) over?"

"Alpha team this is Delta, our 10-20 with a Code 6 (responding from a distance). Is the area 10-26 (clear) over?"

"Has the 3000 (roadblock) been properly established?" Asuma requests as he observes Kakashi and the other officers transfers the black boxes out by the load.

"Yes over."

"We need a 10-91j (collect) of illegal substance. Do you copy over?" he informs the leader of Delta squad while Kakashi scours over the rest of the hallway.

"I'll give it about five to nine minutes for pick up but do you think this is all that this house has in it?" Asuma queries to Kakashi as he position the radio back in its respective socket.

"Given the fact that the boys have already checked out the other rooms and gave us the clear we will have to accept that. They'll have the dogs in here by the time we clear out." Kakashi voices before he leaps out of the empty hole in the ground.

"Hey let's get out of here, I have a feeling that we're going to be swamped in paperwork once we get back to HQ." Asuma advises his silver haired partner.

"When are we not swamped in piles of papers?" Kakashi counters as they travel back out in the late afternoon's night air.

The sight of black vehicles crowds the nice and quiet suburb area seem out of place as four bold yellow block letters _K__DEA_ standout among the officers that amass over the scene.

Kakashi's sights land on two of his commanding field operatives, who were in charge of Bravo and Charlie squad having a discussion near one of the unmarked vehicles. "Yo Uzumaki and Uchiha,"

The blonde haired man and the black haired man pause in the middle of their conversation to turn and face the silver haired man, who had called their names.

"You two did a good job tonight as field leaders." Kakashi compliments the pair before he strolls past them.

His compliment causes the blonde haired man to crack a wide toothy grin while the black haired man shakes his head at his comrade's action before he adds "You're still a dobe, you know that Naruto?"

"Just like you're still a teme, right Sasuke?" The man name Naruto suggests to the man name Sasuke with the same unwavering smile on his face.

The sound of dogs barking captures their attention as they watch a couple of the officers release the hounds within the vicinity of the residence. "You think Kiba and his dogs will find more?"

Sasuke cracks his knuckles and counters with, "Probably, but it was rather ingenious to have the drugs stored in black boxes underneath the house flooring."

"Or it just shows us that we're not messing with some rising slinger. We're dealing with a very seasoned individual possibly a drug cartel." Naruto offers his personal opinion about the matter.

"You know what dobe, you do make a good point about that." Sasuke agrees with Naruto, who merely stares at him with a blank look.

"Why even the great Uchiha can agree along with my thought process? Hell must have definitely frozen over." Naruto quips as he erupts in laughter.

Sasuke roll his eyes at the blonde haired boy's immaturity that he displays for his current age, _'I guess some people just don't know how to grow up.' _

Once Naruto finishes his laughing bout, they could overhear the sound of people shouting "Clear" ringing through the quiet neighborhood.

"There are no more signs of any illegal substance in the residency. We did a full sweep of the house from the front to rear then repeat from rear to front to double check our first conclusion." The man name Kiba reports the results to Kakashi and Asuma, who scribbles down Kiba's findings.

"It seems as if it will be a short night at the office!" Naruto proclaims with a thrust of his arm as if celebrating a victory dance.

"Asuma, go ahead and give the signal to discontinue the roadblock and resume normal traffic flow." Kakashi instructs Asuma, who reaches for the radio and sends the signal.

"Don't look now but dog boy is making his way over here." Naruto fakes a whispered tone with his hand covering his mouth while pointing at an approaching Kiba.

"You know that you suck at whispering right, Naruto?" he conveys to the blonde haired man with an irritated expression on his face.

Naruto swivels to face him and speaks with "That's because it was meant for you to hear. So how was it on the inside?"

"Just as I had reported it to Kakashi. You boys pretty much hit the main source of the cocaine." Kiba simply replies as she points his thumb in the direction of the house.

"Ah good ole coke…you can never go wrong with selling that. It's a cash cow since its users are forever hooked in its grasp like a hawk not letting go of its prey and it's a guarantee quick sell." Sasuke notes which prompts Kiba and Naruto to exchange looks with one another.

"Why must he be so philosophical when it comes to this stuff?" Naruto needles to Kiba, after they loop one of their arms around the other's neck.

"I guess that's in his 'pretty boy I excel at everything' mentality with the inferiority complex. Such a demented little child isn't he?" Kiba proposes the reason to Sasuke's answer.

"Whatever" Sasuke counters both of their idiotic statement about his personality.

"So what do you boys have planned tonight? Go home, pop open a nude magazine, play with yourself and then go to sleep?" Kiba revels to the boys once him and Naruto to break each other from their hold.

Sasuke cut his eyes over toward Kiba and hisses "Just because that's your daily routine doesn't make it ours."

"Oh, burn!" Naruto hollers with a fake expression of hurt on his face and a quick inhale of the breath.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, but listen up you two. I just learned of a spot that has the hottest women off the block from a friend?"

"What's the name of the place?" Naruto inquires since Kiba seem to know about all of the good local attractions in Konohagakure.

"Dollhouse…"


	3. Chapter 3

Kurenai casually strolls inside of the Doll's dressing room for the second time today in order to check up on the progress of the girls.

She merely observes that some of the girls were already dressed in their brand new attire for tonight's show while the others helped each other out with either their makeup or fixing each other's hair.

'_Good…they're on time.' _Kurenai notes to herself once she checks the countdown meter that was situated above the dressing room door.

"Can someone help me with this damn corset?" Temari poses to the girls once she was able to place the form fitting corset over her head and across her chest.

"Leave it to the one who talks a lot of crap to beg for help." Ino revels to the older woman while she drags a large brush across a violet colored powder.

"I can help." Karin speaks up after she rubs her index finger underneath her now rosy colored nose and pads over to where Temari was currently standing.

"Thanks Karin…unlike some spoiled chick that can't even help out her friend with a simple task such as tying a corset." Temari dramatizes with a shake of her head and her hand clutches over her heart.

Before anyone of them could respond to the accusation, the dressing room door swings wide open and three individuals stroll in the area reserved solely for the girls.

The mood in the room quickly alters from one of teasing and joking to one of silence and seriousness.

The ladies immediately cease their playful banter and turn to recognize Suigetsu and Jῡgo enter in first as if to survey the area to make sure no one would harm the person behind them.

"Good afternoon ladies," a masculine voice greets them before he steps in front of Suigetsu and Jῡgo with a small smile present on his face.

Hinata's eyes widen and heart rate starts to increase when she thinks, _'Don't tell me that….'_

The group of girls merely watches the man that stand in front of them. He had long feminine bone straight raven-black hair, very pale and pasty skin, bright yellow pupils with slit retinas, and purple makeup, which reaches from his nose to his upper eyes. He wears a simple tailored dark black suit with his jacket buttoned, black snakeskin dress shoes, a white dress shirt underneath and an circular black watch on his wrist.

"Good afternoon…Lord Orochimaru." Kurenai and the girls return the proper greeting by bowing at the waist.

The man name Orochimaru nods his head forward as Suigetsu and Jῡgo bypass him and searches through the girls' vanity.

"So ladies, are you ready for tonight's crowd?" Orochimaru questions the girls, which breaks their concentration away from the two probing their respective areas.

"I assure you that the girls have learned the new routine and will do as what they have always done before…deliver." Kurenai defends the girls' creditable reputation.

Orochimaru simply takes a couple of steps forward so that he was now in front of Kurenai, "Of course they will…I mean I do choose the best of the best or did you forget just that quickly?"

Kurenai elects not to verbally answer the question as Orochimaru steps pass her in order to inspect the girls.

His eyes scan over the six girls, also affectionately called Dolls by him, his workers, and his patrons. "Do you ladies enjoy your new clothes?"

The Dolls exchange looks at one another and afraid of not trusting their voices they nod their heads in unison agreeing to Orochimaru's question.

"Good then." He happily declares as he continues to shuffle about the dressing room when he hears Suigetsu shout, "Clear!"

"Have a lovely night ladies…" He comments with the same smile on his face before he reverses and leaves with Suigetsu and Jῡgo in tow.

When the trio was well out of ear shout range, Ino turns to face Kuerani and asks "What's up with that?"

"If I were to tell you then you wouldn't make it out of here alive." Kurenai answers in a grave and serious tone.

She abruptly realized that she merely added fuel to the fire of fear that Orochimaru had ignited in them. "But don't worry about that. Just make sure that you all perform how you practiced earlier today."

After Kurenai felt that her girls were in their right frame of mind due to the sudden surprise by their boss, she takes leave from the girls so they can change for tonight.

'_That was too close for comfort…'_

2222

"Look at that line you guys!" Naruto exclaims when he examines the length of the line outside of the building once Kiba drives past the front portion of the Dollhouse.

"Naruto, calm down," Kiba quickly shushes the blonde haired man in the passenger seat of his truck. "I have tickets for tonight's show in the glove compartment."

Naruto unleashes a long sigh while he wipes the back of his hand against his forehead and claims, "That's good."

"Quit being such a drama queen dobe," Sasuke proclaims after he punches the back of the headrest to the passenger seat.

"For once, I agree with pretty boy…" Kiba mutters when he feels his headrest being hit as well. "Damn, I am _driving_ here!"

A "hn" could be heard from the backseat at Kiba's reminder, _'I think I'm burning brain cells with these idiots!'_

Kiba clicks on the right signal, executes the turn inside of the parking lot, locates a empty parking spot, rolls in between two luxury cars, cuts the engine off, reaches for the tickets in the glove compartment for the tickets and piles out of his truck.

'_Naruto was right. It is a lot of people out here tonight.' _He silently agrees with Naruto's previous statement before he leads them toward the entrance of the building.

"If it isn't our favorite dog boy," Naruto and Sasuke hear someone greet Kiba as they exchange handshakes with one another. "I see you're back for yet another show."

Kiba simply nods his head up and down when he clears his throat to speak, "I caught hold to some tailwind that this is a brand new show that there doing tonight."

The shorter of the two, who greeted Kiba first, voices, "Why don't you just go in and enjoy the show like you always do?"

"You know I will Suigetsu, besides I have two newbies along with me today." Kiba divulges to the silver haired man in front of him, who faces the large man with orange hair.

"You hear that Jῡgo? Dog boy brought more customers." The short man name Suigetsu publizes with a smile present on his face.

The taller man name Jῡgo did not verbally respond instead he physically nod his head and opens the door for them to enter inside the realm of the Dollhouse.

"Enjoy the rest of the night you two." Kiba menetions as they enter inside of the building.

They were then quickly greeted by a woman with wild raven-black hair and ruby colored eyes, who examined their tickets and pointed out to them their assigned seats.

"From what I can tell, it seems as if you're a _regular _customer here." Sasuke says once they left the woman, who had pointed them to their seats.

"I haven't been coming here that long mister." Kiba corrects Sasuke with a wag of his index finger toward the man.

"Then explain to me how security knew you by name and face?" Naruto challenges the brunette haired man, who merely smirks at the question.

"Let's just say that I am a rather persuasive man who doesn't like to be denied from the pleasures that I seek." Kiba responses with a slow shrug of his shoulders.

Naruto cuts his gaze over at Sasuke, "Who knew that the rumors about you being a pervert were actually...true?"

"That's because you two never cared enough to ask me whether or not it was true." He retorts, which earns him a head shake from his two companions.

"Shush...it's about to start!" a random masculine voice bellows when the curtains peel back to reveal the same woman, who had greeted them at the door, with a microphone in her hand.

Wolf whistles could be heard from amongst the crowd before the woman raise the microphone to her mouth and broadcasts, "Good evening everyone!"

A roar of "good evening" emits from the crowd around the stage, which produces a smile on her face.

"Welcome one and all to the Dollhouse! Now, I know you all have seen a little girl with a large plastic house filled with furniture and a doll in her hand spinning a fantasy that will ultimately now become your reality. These dolls are ready to perform a brand new show for you all tonight. So enter if you dare…"

Meanwhile backstage, the girls were lined up in their respective order after Kurenai retrieved them earlier from their routine prayer circle.

"Remember the counts and moves. I will back here to help you out if you need anything." Kurenai advises them with a gentle smile. "Take your positions."

"Dolls…" she call for their attention once they settle in their positions, "…go break a leg."

'_It's show time.' _The girls thinks in unison once the curtain was slow to inch away from in front of them.

2222

Kiba, Naruto, and Sasuke observe six women seductively strut out on stage toward a black horizontal pole and dangle from it in various lifeless positions.

Loud music fills the room as the girls spring to life as they lift their bodies up one by one in a ripple fashion.

'_There she is.' _ Kiba declares as he immediately beholds the woman clad in a silver, white, and purple corset, who was the fourth to the right or one over from the left.

Sasuke casually views the actions of the women in front of him as if he watches paint dry on the wall with little to no interest.

On the other hand, his blonde haired partner mimics Kiba's position, when he focuses in on a woman with weird color hair, dazzling white eyes that favors pearls or opals, and clad in an all-white corset with knee-length stockings.

'_She's simply…beautiful.' _He thinks to himself as his eyes train in on the woman, who was on the far left.

2222

"How many people are here tonight?" Orochimaru inquires about the number of patrons currently in to a silver haired man, who wears a large circular black rimmed glasses.

"We have a full house with a line outside." The man in front of him reports once he cuts his sights away from the brown clipboard that was in his grasps.

A smirk stretches across Orochimaru's face before he asserts, "Excellent…what about the other shipment, Kabuto?"

"Due to the recent activity, we have to deliver the new shipment in for a couple of hours until we can verify whether or not the other houses are safe for storage." The man name Kabuto discloses while he pushes his glasses back on to the bridge of his nose.

Orochimaru lifts his chin to his interlaced hands, "You know I don't like bringing _that_ in to this clean environment. Try and take it to a nearby storage area."

"Understood. However, what if the houses are all at carrying capacity?" Kabuto suggests of another possible alternative to his boss, Orochimaru, order.

"Keep it nearby and move the shipment when there's a crowd so we can blend in." Orochimaru commands after he listens to Kabuto's suggestion.

"As you wish Lord Orochimaru," Kabuto asserts before he bows at the waist and exits from Orochimaru's office space.

'_Of all days to be close to the caution line is when I have one of the biggest shipments coming in to Konohagakure.' _Orochimaru silently curses at the ill timing of the terrible news and his potential prosperous wealth.

A knock at the door separates Orochimaru from his mental thoughts when he announces loud enough for the person on the other side to hear him, "Come in."

A man with long white hair that was pulled back in to a ponytail with a red dot in the middle of his forehead strolls inside of the office.

"Lord Orochimaru," the man greets Orochimaru once he drops to one knee on the floor with his head bowed before he receives the order, "Raise"

"Sir, I have successfully fulfilled the mission's objective…" the man speaks in a proper tone, which prompts Orochimaru to lean back in his chair.

"Continue on…" Orochimaru requests as he physically gestures to the man in front of him to proceed with his report.

"At first my lord, the search was futile until I discovered this…" The man digs inside of one of his pockets and produces a couple of small baggies with powdery white substance.

"It seems as if somone is snorting more than they are doing their job."

Orochimaru sits forward and ensnares one of the small plastic baggies that currently occupy his desk. "This is about…$250 worth of my stuff. Was there any money?"

A "no" came in the form of the man who shakes his head as Orochimaru tosses the baggies back on the surface of his desk and reflects to himself for a couple of minutes.

"It seems as if were going to have to handle this situation as soon as possible…_Kimimaro_."


	4. Chapter 4

"Hey Kiba," Naruto shouts out for the brunette male's attention once he leans in closer to him.

"What is it?" Kiba inquires as he breaks his focus away from the red haired woman, who was doing a seductive dance inside of a rather large martini glass with the green olive included.

"How long does this show normally last?" Naruto wonders out loud about the duration of the show to Kiba with a rather interested expression currently on his face.

"Oh I see…" Kiba suddenly interjects, which causes Naruto to lean away from him, "...one of the girls caught your eye, hasn't she?"

"It's not like that!" Naruto immediately denies the accusation as Kiba merely raise a knowing eyebrow at him.

"It's fine if one of them did catch your attention since it's their job to serve as eye candy to voracious men such as ourselves." Kiba assures his friend with a hand on his shoulder.

"Speak for yourself…" Sasuke swiftly chimes in with his arms across his chest and his eyes closed.

"Hey, you're not even remotely interested in what's going on in front of you, are you?" Kiba questions Sasuke once he leans over and notes that he was in his a sleeping position.

"Come on now Kiba, just answer my question already?" Naruto whines before Kiba returns his attention to the blonde haired man to his left.

Kiba peers at his watch and casts his sights back on his friend and coworker, "About an hour or so,"

"And how much were the tickets?" Naruto asks but his question falls on deaf ears from the thunderous sounds of applause from the audience once the doll known as Velvet exits off the left of the stage.

'_I wonder if she will be next.' _Kiba and Naruto thought at the same time when they watch the woman with the red ruby eyes appear back on stage.

2222

"Listen to the sound of that crowd you guys!" Ino excitingly mumbles when she halts in the middle of practicing her pair routine with Sakura.

"That's one lively bunch out there." Temari agrees as she twirls the fan made of large feathers across the top of her hand and secures it in her clutches.

"It's almost you gals time to perform as pairs, right?" Tenten poses to Sakura and Ino, who resumes their routine.

Sakura nods her head up and down and replies, "Yeah, but to have to follow up your pair performance with Temari is a pretty hard job to do."

"Quit complimenting them Sakura!" Ino swiftly interjects, which causes Temari and Tenten to burst out in to laughter at Ino's statement.

"You guys…keep it down! I can hear you when I walk off the stage." Karin's voice suddenly chimes in to their conversation.

"It seems as if you got a positive review, Velvet." Ino addresses Karin by her stage name as a smile stretches on her face.

"What can I say? The audience loves a girl who likes to get all wet and soapy." Karin comments with a shrug of her shoulders.

Tenten swings down to the ground and lands with grace as Temari leans her fans up against the wall when Sakura speaks up. "So after you is…"

"Ice…" Karin finishes the rose haired woman's sentence before their awareness shift to the rather quiet indigo haired woman, who was in her own dimension.

Karin strolls over and taps her hand on top of Hinata's right shoulder when she feels her instantly flinch from the contact of her touch.

"Oh...it's just you Karin." Hinata mumbles to herself as a way to reassure herself that it was Karin, who touches her shoulder.

"You sure you're alright Hinata?" Karin asks the woman in front of her, who appears to be paler than usual.

Before she could even answer Karin's question, Tenten, who stands directly behind the curtain, whispers to her, "Hinata, you're on!"

"I'm fine. Thank you for asking though." She quickly responds as she takes off to her position on the stage.

"I wonder what has gotten in to her?" Temari wonders out loud once she noticed Hinata's recently strange behavior ever since she came to work.

Sakura and Ino pauses in their routine when Sakura interjects in the conversation, "She was like that earlier when she came in the dressing room once she left the restroom."

"I hope the kid can pull through…" Temari pauses in the middle of her sentence before she adds, "...after all, she has one of the most difficult individual routines to execute beside Tenten."

"Suspended in the air…uh uh that's definitely not my cup of tea," Ino exclaims when they hear Hinata's cue to position her to start her individual performance.

"Welcome to Ice's domain…the birdcage." Kurenai completes Hinata's introduction and treks off of the stage.

'_Here I go…' _Hinata notes while she swallows down the dry lump that forms in her neck whenever she was nervous.

She struts out on the stage to her desginated start position when the bright spotlight blinds herself.

2222

"Yo Kakashi," a masculine voice bellows to the silver grey haired man, who was currently lounging in his chair.

'_Always sleep on the job or late for the briefing...such a waste of precious youthfulness.' _the man inwardly thinks to himself after he observes his coworker's behavior_._

"Are you going to sleep your entire youth away, eh _Kakashi_?" the man shouts loud enough to arise Kakashi from his light slumber.

"Why are you so loud?" Kakashi challenges when his sights fall on a man with black hair styled in a bowl cut, thick bushy eyebrows, a green spandex jumpsuit, and bright orange weights around his lower calf muscles.

'_Oh great…what is Might Guy doing here?' _he inwardly ponders to himself as he wipes the sleep from his visible right eye socket.

"Did you not get the message?" he howls his question directly in Kakashi's ear, which almost knocks him out of his current sitting position on the chair.

"What message are you talking about Guy?" he poses to man, who had shout his precious little head off.

"You were due for the debriefing twenty minutes ago. So when you failed to show up, I was ordered to go and retrieve you from your desk." Guy explains the reason why he was in front of him.

Kakashi mentally slaps himself in the face when he inwardly thinks, _'How can I forget to do something as standard as that?'_

"Come on slow poke, I'll race you to the meeting room so your fountain of youth can be restored to its normal function!" Guy challenges Kakashi with a thumbs up, clenched fist against his side and a gleam from his wide smile.

"I'll think about it and give you my answer later." Kakashi dodges the challenge and provide yet another answer to one of Guy's silly schemes to one up him.

"My youthfulness will always be ready to go whenever you feel up to accept my challenge." Guy claims with his voice slightly toned down.

"Whatever you say Guy, whatever you say." Kakashi mutters to himself as the two men venture on the short distance to the briefing area.

'_Even still there was something weird about that place? I can't put my hands on it but for some reason it seems…'_

2222

"Welcome to Ice's domain…the birdcage." The woman with red eyes proclaims before she exits from the stage while Hinata struts out on to the stage.

'_There she is!' _Naruto cheers in silent excitement as he sits closer to the edge of his chair to get a closer look at the woman.

'_So that's the one whose caught his eyes?' _Kiba mentally notes to himself after he notices the blonde haired male's intense concentrated expression on his face.

It was a huge circular cage with white bars and a white ring that dangles from the center of the cage, which graces the surface of the stage.

The indigo haired woman draws back the door, steps inside, shoves the door back, and circles around the cage until her back was to the group.

She positions her hands at the bottom of the ring, lifts herself up from the ground, and rocks until she loops her legs through first. She lies flat on her stomach against the ring and spins herself.

Naruto marvels at the sheer strength of the woman's aerobatics prowess since she was able to adjust her weight so she would not topples over or acquire any type of injury from her high octane performance.

He notes that she had an excellent sense of balance since she was able to maneuver around the cage without wobbling as she walks after spinning so fastly and hangs on to the ring.

She did not seem too frazzled or concerned at all about the crowd's presence, who watches her every single move in a breathtaking or breathless response.

The woman was rather quite comfortable with her surroundings because she focus in on completing and executing her routine.

Her music was coming to an end as she climbs back on to ring this time her butt was against the ring and starts to rapidly twirls herself.

She drops her hold, catches herself by her arm pits, extends her right leg straight while her left leg bends at a forty-five degree angle with her head back.

Once the music cease, the woman slowly removes herself from her current position, stands on her feet, bows at the waist, and exits the birdcage and the stage.

"Now that…was amazing." Kiba whistles out during his round of applause for the doll that was known as Ice.

Even Sasuke, who had appeared to be uninterested, critically observes the woman's performance with sudden interest before he returns back to his normal position.

'_I wonder what her real name is?' _Naruto inwardly thinks to himself since he was slightly disappointed that the woman had to leave the stage.

2222

Hinata strolls backstage to see Ino and Sakura at the waiting point on the far side of the stage for their music to start.

"Good job as always Hinata." Sakura congratulates her first with a warm smile followed by Ino's statement, "Way to lay it on them!"

A genuine smile spreads across her face before she wishes them both the best of luck on their next performance, which they gladly accept, as they saunter to their positions.

Hinata views Temari and Tenten working on their individual performances again except this time Tenten was doing the floor portion of her routine.

'_Where's Karin?' _she ponders to herself since she wants to go over their routine while they had fifteen minutes in between their performance time to practice.

"Temari," Hinata bawls to the woman, who clutches one fan directly in front of her and the other was behind her head. "Yeah, what is it Hinata?"

"Have you seen Karin?" She inquires about the location of her dance partner.

"She said she needed to go use the bathroom. You might want to check out in the hallway." Tenten replies as she raises her arms above her head and wraps her hands around the two cloths.

Hinata nods her head and lets Tenten return to perfecting her routine for the show while she travels her way toward the hallway.

When she cracks the door open, she overhear a conversation between two people in the hallway

"What is it that you want now?" a familiar feminine voice asks as Hinata registers the voice as none other than _'Karin's.'_

"Where are you coming from?" a familiar masculine voice questions Karin's current presence in the hallway.

"I really don't have time to be playing 21 questions with you so move the hell out of my way!" Karin retorts to the masculine voice.

"Hm…it seems as if you have been doing it again." The voice claims with a click of their tongue.

_'It's only one guy here that does that when they talk…its Suigetsu!'_

"Keep your voice down you damn idiot! You're going to let everyone else know." Karin quickly hushes Suigetsu's response.

"I just came to pass along a friendly warning to you...that's all. You just be careful where you keep your things at from now on." Sugiuestu warns her before he leaves her alone.

The sound of footsteps near the door, whch causes Hinata to remove herself from as far away from the door as possible.

"Where are you going, Ice?" Karin poses to Hinata, who was on the verge of reaching the entrance and exit of the stage.

"I was trying to find you so we can rehearse our pair routine with one another." Hinata answers Karin's question.

Karin merely notes Hinata's face, _'Please don't let it show.' _She inwardly repeats as it seems to be her mantra for today.

"How awfully clever of you then? Let's go!" Karin says as she reaches out for Hinata's arms.

'_What did Suigetsu mean when he said she has been doing it again?'_


	5. Chapter 5

"Come on in, you two," a feminine voice orders once Might Guy raps one of his clenched fist against the door, which leads to the conference room.

Might Guy enters inside of the room first before Kakashi and proclaims to the group, "I finally found him!"

"We can clearly see that, Guy." Asuma loudly comments with a wave of his hand as he points to an open seat next to him for Kakashi to occupy in.

Kakashi swiftly treks over to the empty seat next to Asuma since he was silently happy that he was able to gain some distance from the eccentric Might Guy.

"So what have I missed so far?" Kakashi mutters his question to Asuma when a purple haired woman appears in front of them.

Asuma slightly leans over and whispers in a low tone, "We haven't started yet since we were forced to wait for everyone to get here."

Kakashi's face was an "Oh" before he mentally think to himself, _'I guess I wasn't too late then.' _

The purple haired woman clears her throat before she begin to speaks, "If I could have your attention please…the recent search and seizure of the house has proven the information that Ibiki was able to extract from his interrogation was accurate information."

"The raid that was led by none other than field general, Kakashi Hatake, who has also confirmed that there were indeed illegal substances hidden within the area of the home. The weighted amount of cocaine that was discovered is slated enough to supply each and every drug dealer within Konohagakure's border."

"We are led to believe that this is just merely one of the several drug houses that are being used as a storage facility for other illegal substances besides cocaine. Sources theorizes that this house belongs to a cartel under a notoriously infamous kingpin."

"Well done with the report Anko," A woman with blonde haired congratulates the purple haired woman named Anko, "Kakashi, is there anything else that you would like to add on to our current report."

Kakashi's head swivels toward the woman who had call out his name, "Don't you think that it is a little odd that the information Ibiki was able to get only led us to _one_ drug house when there was the possibility of several."

"Continue on with your hypothesis…" the woman instructs after Kakashi pauses in the middle of his statement to see if the others follow along his thoughts.

"I mean all we found was a couple of black boxes filled with baggies. For us to solely trust what a detainee said was a risk within itself but it verifies full insight to this investigation. I think it was a reason as to why we were sent to that house in particular."

"I agree with Kakashi, Tsunade." Asuma chimes in agreement with Kakashi's mindset. "It was way too easy. From the entrance of the home, the search for the drugs and the emptiness of the house."

The blonde haired woman named Tsunade whirls her head toward the silver haired male, who sits on her right hand side, "Jiraya, what do you think about this?"

The silver haired male name Jiraya taps one of his index finger against his temple before he snaps his middle finger and thumb. "Ibiki, did the detainee have any tattoos present on his body?"

The group's focus was aim at the older male with the three visible scars across his face with a black bandana tied around his head region.

"There was only one tattoo present on his neck…" Ibiki mentions as he leans forward and touch a grided screen, which produces a video image of the detainee tied upside in ropes with his head downward.

Ibiki zooms in on the streaming media when the group makes out what was three commas encircle, which favors the pattern of a flower. "I happened to come across this when I was doing the initial search of the detainee."

"That symbol…" Tsunade verbalizes once she registers the meaning behind the symbol. "...it seems as if he's a servant of the Oro-Kingpin."

"Who's the Oro-Kingpin?" Everyone poses amongst themselves, except for Tsunade and Jiraya.

Jiraya sits forward and presses a couple of buttons on the screen in front of him, which changes from the streaming video to a profile with the name Oro-Kingpin at the top.

"The Snake Kingpin or what they are known in the system as the Oro-Kingpin has been rampart in Konohagakure for years. Their operation was quite secretive until recent reported active activity. We believe that the cocaine is merely the means to supply their accounts with enough monetary value to sustain them with the necessary means to create more potent medical material." He summarizes the profile.

Tsunade releases a frustrated sigh before she summouns her assistant Shizune, "Shizune come in here now!"

A brunette haired woman materializes in the room with a pile of papers in her clutches before she responses with, "Yes, what is it?"

"I need for you to retrieve any and all available records and reports that consists with the Oro-Kingpin or Snake Kingpin and have it on all of the officers desk by tomorrow morning." Tsunade orders the woman name Shizune, who merely shakes her head and exit with the stack of papers still in her hands.

"It seems as if we might bring down one of the most notorious and evasive kingpins in Konoha. Are you all ready?" Tsunade asks a rhetorical question to the current individuals, who were in front of her.

2222

'_I wonder what were Karin and Suigestu were talking about in the hallway.' _Hinata ponders to herself as she recalls the weird conversation between the pair in the hallway.

"_Keep your voice down you damn idiot. You're going to let everyone else know." _"_I just came to pass a friendly warning on to you that's all. You just be careful where you keep your things at from now on."_

'_So is Karin hiding something from us?' _Hinata mentally wonders as she tries to process the pair's conversation.

She instantly jolts from the feel of sudden contact, which causes her to immediately peers up in the direction to see Sakura with a small smile on her face.

"Hey you…" Sakura utters once she withdraws her hand from Hinata's shoulder and returns it to her side.

Hinata unleashes her held breath before she retorts with, "Hey to you too."

Sakura raise an eyebrow at a rather dazed Hinata before she asks, "Are you sure you're feeling alright?"

"Yeah…why wouldn't I be?" Hinata challenges the rosy haired woman with a concentrated expression on her face.

It was then that Ino had made her way over to where the pair were, "You guys...Tenten is doing her high-wired act! You know you don't want to miss it…"

She halts midway in her statement when she exchange glances between two of her closes friends. "Is there something going on here?"

Hinata merely shakes her head in a "no" fashion before she asserts with "Sakura was just checking up on me, that's all."

Sakura simply prolongs her stare on Hinata for a tad bit longer when she says, "Oh you know…it's just me and my _motherly_ ways."

"You know she's always been the mother hen of the group so pay it no mind." Ino whispers in Hinata's ear once Sakura was out of ear shot.

Hinata nods her head in agreement when she watches her dance partner travels from the side of the stage with a bottle of water in her hand.

"I guess I will let you two get back to work on your pair performance, since you do have to end it off right before our last group performance." Ino claims before she struts over to the side of the stage to watch Tenten's perform.

"You ready partner?" Karin asks Hinata, who response was a physical nod of her head.

2222

"How long do we have to go before it's over?" Sasuke poses to Kiba as he remains in his laid back position, which displays his present lack of interest.

The waitress delivers another round of beer at their table, which Kiba reaches out for one, unscrews the top and sips from the rim of the bottle.

Naruto and Kiba divert their sights to the young man since he was quite serious about his question, "Man teme…loosen up a little bit and enjoy your time here."

"Yeah…" Kiba agrees as he tilts the neck of the bottle toward Sasuke, "Just relax a little and enjoy the show."

Sasuke releases a sigh while he rolls his eyes and resume back to what he was currently doing and that was keeping to himself.

"As we're slowly winding down to the conclusion of our show, we would like to entertain you all with the last pair performance of the night before the final group performance. So once again, I would like to introduce to you all Velvet and Ice!" Kurenai introduces the next act and steps off of the stage.

Naruto's ears perk up at the name in the announcement as his attention breaks away from the grouchy Sasuke and toward the stage.

Karin and Hinata's back faced away from the crowd as they both exhales a held breath and focused in on the job at hand.

"Let's kill 'em dead!" Karin quickly whispers when the sounds of their respective music start to play as they assume their first position.

2222

"It really is a full house tonight, eh Jῡgo?" Suigetsu revels while he nudges one of his elbows against the taller man's ribcage.

Jῡgo simply nods his head up then down and voices, "As is any other night."

"Ah come on Jῡgo…you got to give me more than just those nods of your head. It makes me feel as if I'm speaking to a wall here." He humors as he shrugs his shoulders up and down.

Jῡgo merely raises an eyebrow at his white haired friend's action when he inquires "Are you sure you're feeling alright?"

"Psh…never felt any better." Suigetsu quickly admits with a 'tsk' of his tongue when he speaks.

Suigetsu's eyes fell on the red haired woman, who was currently parading around the stage with Hinata or Ice at her side, when a thought passes through his mind.

'_It seems as if the girls hasn't found out about her secret yet.' _He mentally notes as he continues to watches Karin's dance routine.

He merely shakes his head left and right when a bad sensation soon hits him and his gut.

Suigetsu suddenly cuts his eyes over to the hallway where high paid patrons paid to rent out rooms for their own personal purposes.

'_I hope Ice comes through with my suggestion.' _A wide toothy smile stretches across his face at the thought of his plans coming true.

The sight of a white haired male enters his vision, which quickly causes his previous feeling to become amplified.

_'I think this may be the last night the Dollhouse have a sixth member.'_

2222

Kakashi releases a held sigh, jams his hands inside of his pockets, and treads his way to his desk. _'So we're about to wage a war against the Oro-Kingpin.'_

'_I kind of figured that it was more than what we initially thought.' _He notes since his hunch was correct.

The sight of his personal work space brings silent comfort however there was another unexpected and univited visitor. This time their feet was propped and crossed at the ankles on the surface of his desk.

'_It's just not my night is it?' _He inwardly complains to himself while he mentally gears himself up for the conversation._ 'First it was Guy now it's her...'_

"Paintbrush head!" A feminine voice greets him once he enters within her sights while a wooden dango stick aimlessly dangles from her lips while she speaks.

Kakashi merely lifts his right hand up in a "hey" fashion as he pads within the small cube area known as his office.

The woman remains in her current position unfazed that she occupied the only chair that was present in his office.

"It seems as if you have been able to validate your reputation the last couple of days. You still haven't lost your edge."

"I usually don't receive these unexpected visits from you unless you want something in return." Kakashi counters as the presence of the woman in front of him was quite rare.

The woman lifts her feet upward and spins around in Kakashi's chair until her feet lands on the floor's surface that follows with a "humph".

"What is it that you want _Anko_?" He inquires with his arms across his chest as he leans his back against one of the walls of his cubicle.

The woman name Anko merely rise to her feet and stand directly in front of Kakashi, "You need to start getting some rest. There are some heavy bags underneath your eyes."

"Is that all you wanted?" he challenges in a polite tone when he realizes that Anko merely ignores his question and walks past him.

"See you later," Anko tosses up one of her hands as she strolls away from the silver haired male with a smirk present on her face.

'_Women…'_


	6. Chapter 6

"Good job you two!" Ino happily proclaims once Karin and Hinata exit from the stage after she witness the duo's performance.

"Thanks Ino," Hinata thanks her blonde haired friend for the compliment as they quickly travel over to their closet, which contains their other performance wardrobe.

"Give them some time to change blondie." Temari's voice orders Ino along with a pat on one of her shoulders.

Ino merely shrugs Temari's hand off of her shoulder before she counters with "Fine then".

"I think she's still upset about how we reacted to her big news." Tenten mentions to Temari, who nods her head in agreement to her statement.

"Ino's has big news?" Karin suddenly questions the duo once she overhears what Tenten just recently told Temari.

"Oh yeah that's right…Ino is now engaged!" Tenten informs Karin about the subject of their conversation.

Karin faces the blonde haired girl, whose back was away from her, as she expresses her shock of the situation, "I never thought I would hear that word for her."

Sakura strolls over to where Temari, Tenten, and Karin were currently standing and discussing about Ino's new relationship status.

"I know right? Even I was surprised." She admits as Karin spins toward the closet where Hinata withdraws her outfit from within the space.

Ino releases a sneeze, runs her index finger underneath her nose, peers over her shoulder and snares the girls' in her gaze.

"I know you females aren't talking about me behind my back." Ino snaps with a smug expression present on her face.

Temari was the first one to whirl her head away from the group and cast her gaze toward Ino when she poses to her, "And what if we are?"

"I didn't know you all cared so much about me." Ino asserts with a large smile present instead of the smug expression on her face.

"That's because deep down we really don't." Temari retorts with a similar smile present on her face as well.

"Ladies, you're absolutely too loud! The crowd outside can hear you, you know." Kurenai sternly warns the girls with a wag of her finger.

"Sorry, Kurenai," The girls whispers their statement under their breath as Karin return to her task of preparing for their last routine.

2222

"Hey Pretty Boy," Kiba calls out to Sasuke as he use one of his many monikers for his sulking companion.

"What is it now, Dog Boy?" Sasuke questions in a rather annoyed tone because he was so rudely awaken from his brief nap.

"I was going to tell you that this is the last portion of the show _but_ since you haven't been such a good sport I was going to let you suffer through it." Kiba mentions as he shrug his shoulders up and then down.

Naruto cast his gaze over to where his partner, who had taken a nap, due to him being slouched down in the chair.

"So you haven't been looking at any of the performances?" He questions in disbelief at his partner's current actions.

Sasuke ignores the question and instead resumes his previous activity, which was to take another nap.

Kiba roughly nudges one of his elbows in Naruto's side before he replies with "You shouldn't bother with the wet blanket. He has been out of it ever since it started."

_'I should have known that teme would be out of it. He really has no life outside of work.' _He thinks in disappointment of his partner's lack of interest of other things.

"...but it seems as if you were focused in on _one_ particular lady up there?" Kiba teases Naruto, who merely scratches his right cheek with an index finger along with a blush present on his face.

Kiba simply observes Naruto's reaction as it cause him to chuckle at the ever so innocent Naruto.

_'Ah the poor kid has probably never been to one of these since he became the age to do so.'_

The sight of the curtains draws a part from each other and the music captures their focus, which postpones his antics on Naruto as his sights center on the stage.

"And the show's about to start…" Kiba mutters to himself when the sight of six beautiful females graces the stage once again.

2222

_'So it could be The Oro-Kingpin, huh?'_ Kakashi wonders to himself not aware that Asuma invades his personal space, which was his office.

"Kakashi," Asuma calls out to the silver haired male, who ignores him and lingers in a daze state.

_'Whatever he's thinking about has him in deep.' _He notes to himself.

The weight of the manila folders that were in his forearms reminds him of the task that was assigned to him.

He opts to drop the stack of folders on the desk in order to scare the ever so composed Kakashi.

A slight smirk stretches across his face from the anticipation of the end result of his plan.

"Bang" emits from the impact of the folders that collide with the desk as Kakashi's reaction was a jolt from his slouched position with a groan.

He stares at a mound of Manila folders jam with papers and colored tabs before he locates the source of the noise.

"Was that really necessary Asuma?" Kakashi inquires out of frustration as he drags his hand down his face.

Asuma wears a simple smile on his face at his silver haired companion's backlash before he explains why he was present in his office.

"This is all the paperwork Shizune was able to dig up on The Oro-Kingpin. Tsnuade wants us to pretty much study up on this drug kingpin."

_'He has this many files in the database.' _Kakashi mentally notes as he observes the height of the folders.

"Looks like we're stuck in the office again," Asuma suddenly mentions in a dishearten tone before he idly trudges over to his office, which was conveniently adjacent to Kakashi's.

He merely rolls his eyes at the idea of staying in for the night yet it was all for the progression of eliminating illegal substances from Konohagakure's streets.

_'Might as well start from the top and work my down to the bottom.' _Kakashi outlines how he was going to tackle the task of learning about the Oro-Kingpin.

2222

The sound of thunderous applause can be heard once the girls exit right from the stage but did not travel any further past the small steps, which leads backstage.

"Now to introduce to you all the lovely Dolls that resides in this elaborate Dollhouse." Kurenai proclaims once the girls leave from their stage.

"Allow me to introduce Tempest, Panda, Cherry, Princess, Velvet and Ice," Kurenai introduces each of the girls to the crowd, who continues to clap with the addition of wolf whistles.

The girls secures each other hands, lifts it up, bows at the waist and departs from the stage with wide smiles present on their face.

"We so totally killed 'em." Ino declares once they were completely behind the back part of the stage where none of the patrons could see them.

"I'm just ready to get out of this freaking tight corset." Temari huffs out with her shoulders hunched forward to show her discomfort in the formfitting top.

"...or you could lose a couple of pounds so you won't have to worry about the tightness." Ino humors after she listens to Temari's compliant about the corset.

Temari swiftly cut her gaze over to the young woman before she retorts with a "Ha, ha, ha very funny Ino. Everyone can't be a size zero like you honey."

"Ladies…" Sakura and Tenten interject themselves in the middle of the blondes' conversation as smiles grace their faces.

"Oh come on you two, you should know how Princess and I play with one another." Temari comments as she reassures the two ladies, who separate her from Ino.

"Those two are crazy, don't you think?" Karin mumbles to Hinata, who merely serves as a silent witness to all of the commotion that goes on.

It was then that Kurenai had taken her leave from the stage and materialized in front of the girls, "Alright ladies, go ahead and get changed."

"So we're not doing another show tonight?" Tenten inquires out of curiosity after she hears Kurenai's announcement.

This causes the other girls focus to shift to the raven haired woman with similar facial expressions like Tenten's.

Kurenai shakes her head left and right and response to their expression, "The boss felt that by performing this brand new show that it would generate enough buzz in order to boast ticket sales."

"That makes sense." Ino agrees along with their boss plans for them to gain more money.

"Besides, he felt that he has been working you all to the bone and that this small break would allow you all to rest up for tomorrow's night performance." She continues to explain to the girls.

The girls all gave a silent cheer since they were physically exhausted from working long hours without a proper vacation let alone a break.

"So hurry along before he goes and changes his mind." Kurenai advises them since she knew it would get them to move along faster than what they were doing.

Her advice quickly registers to the girls as they swiftly dash toward their dressing room so they could make it out before their boss changes his mind.

Hinata faces the red haired woman who walks on her left, who seem to be unfazed about the conversation she had with Suigetsu in the hallway.

_'Maybe I should ask her about what they were talking?' _she thought to herself before she temporarily dismisses the idea.

2222

"Aw man is that it?" Naruto suddenly poses to Kiba with a disappointed facial expression present on his face.

Kiba scans his surroundings before his gaze land on the silver haired bouncer from earlier; he shuts out "Yo Suigetsu!"

However, the silver haired male ignores Kiba's calls of his name as he treks to the back of the club.

"I wonder why he ignored me like that." Kiba mutters to himself, which garners a snappy comeback from Sasuke.

"Who cares? Let's just get going." He declares as he watches other people leave the establishment.

Naruto peers over at Sasuke when he replies with, "Next time...you're not coming with us!"

"Us?" Kiba teasingly questions Naruto, which produces a small spread of pink tint across his cheeks.

"It's obvious that he doesn't want to come again." He points at Sasuke, who remains in the same position from when they first walked in.

Kiba nods his head in agreement with Naruto's statement as he replies, "Since pretty boy been a fairly good sport, I think we should let him go. What do you think Naruto?"

Naruto answers with a shrug of his shoulders when Kiba inwardly thought, _'So much for trying to stay a little longer.' _

He uses one of his hands to dig in one of his jean's pockets until he fishes ou his keys to his truck.

"Let's go." Kiba yaps to the group of men, who shoves away from their table and merges along with the other leaving patrons.

Naruto's gaze lingers on the stage as his mind replays Ice's entire performance in the large birdcage.

_'Her eyes seem as if she was...lonely and all alone.'_

"Dobe," Sasuke mutters out his personal moniker for his blonde haired companion, which breaks his attention from the center of the stage.

"Are you coming or not Naruto?" Kiba scoffs after he pauses once he realizes that Naruto was no longer in their company.

"Alright," he confirms as he stares at the stage for one last time before he jogs in order to reach Kiba and Sasuke.


	7. Chapter 7

"You requested for me?" Suigetsu inquires once he enters within Orochimaru's office after another one of the workers relayed the boss message on to him.

"I need for you to go and retrieve one of the girls and bring her to my office." Orochimaru issues an order to the young man that stands in front of him.

An ominous sensation creeps through his body after he process the order that his boss wants him to execute.

He knew all too well from experience that it was either two reasons that Orochimaru wanted to speak directly to a specific doll. The first reason was to punish them for doing something that hurt the flow of business or the second reason was to enjoy one-on-one time with that doll.

For some reason, Suigetsu silently hopes that it was the first reason to some extent as in a verbal warning but his gut told him that it was the latter option.

"Which one am I supposed to get?" He asks since Orochimaru did not specify which doll he wanted to call in.

Orochimaru simply leans against the body of the leather black chair as a smile stretches across his face before he answers with "Bring in…"

2222

"What a crowd tonight!" Ino loudly declares as she withdraws her seat from underneath her vanity, slides in front of her vanity, and exclaims. "I know our paycheck is going to be big!"

"I hope it is. I have bills that need to be paid before the end of the month." Tenten agrees with the idea of a bigger check as she snatches a packet of wet towelette before she sits down.

Sakura nods her head in agreement before she chimes in with, "My tuition needs to be paid sooner or later or I won't be credited for any of my classes."

"Speaking off...how are the classes going Sak?" Ino poses to her neighbor as she starts to wipe the makeup from her eyelids.

Sakura reaches behind her, tugs on the strings on her corset, and answers Ino's question, "...stressful especially with exams coming up soon."

"What about you Tem?" Tenten redirects the group's attention to Temari, who brushes her hair back in to her signature four ponytails.

Temari places the brush down, plucks a rubberband from a case, and replies, "It will help me pay for my brothers' supplies...if they need it."

"So how is the business doing by the way?" Tenten wonders as she wipes the towelette across her cheeks in order to remove the applied foundation from earlier.

"This big name theater company caught wind about Kankuro's puppetry skills and request that not only do they want him to participate in a production but to create a entirely new series of puppets exclusively for the show." She divulges to the girl while she ties a portion of her hair in a second ponytail.

"That sounds like a wonderful opportunity!" Tenten proclaim with a small smile on her face before she tosses the towelette in the disposable bin underneath her vanity.

Karin simply observes the in house chatter among the girls when she realizes that Hinata was quiet in her own section and was already finished with removing her makeup.

"Hey Hinata," Karin utters as she extends one of her hands out for Hinata's arm, "...you're awfully quiet over there. Are you alright?"

Hinata feels something pressing against her skin as she glances down to see a hand on her arm. Her gaze travels up the length of the arm until she recognizes Karin's face.

She merely nods her head up and down as she starts to work on loosening the strings on her corset so she could tug it off.

Before Karin could even fire off another question, Kurenai enters and closes the dressing room door behind her.

"Ladies, may I have your attention?" she suddenly inquires once she steps down to the bottom stair and stands on to the dressing room floor.

The girls immediately cease what they were doing in order to focus in on Kurenai, "You all did an amazing job with the new routines! I am very proud of each and every one of you."

"Is that a compliment from you, Kurenai?" Temari quips as she swivels to face Kurenai, which cause a smile to surfaces on the raven-haired woman's face.

She nods her head up and down before she continues speaking, "So as you all know every time we present a brand new showcase, we only perform it once on the first day and the rest of the night is yours."

The girls each did a personal victory dance or silent celebration at Kurenai's announcement. "If you need anything before you leave don't hesitate to stop by the studio or call me."

A unified, "We know, Kurenai," could be heard from the girls since they would always respond in the same manner every time.

"Enjoy the rest of the night safely ladies." She advises the group before she strolls in the direction of her office.

"So is anyone besides me interested in getting something to eat after this?" Temari abruptly poses to the girls.

She observes all of their hands shot upward in agreement.

"Now that's what I'm talking about. We will leave once everyone gets ready then." She comments as she returns to brushing her hair.

2222

Kiba turns in to a secured parking lot, flashes his badge as well as Sasuke and Naruto to the security guard, drives past the now lifted yellow guard, and rolls through the rows of parked cars.

"Alright you two get the hell out!" Kiba abruptly shouts once he shifts the truck from drive to park.

"Whatever," Sasuke mutters as he shimmies out of the backseat while Naruto mentions, "We're going sheesh!"

"See you losers tomorrow," Kiba chimes in as he shift the truck from park to drive, speeds off down the rows of cars, and exits the parking lot.

"I knew I should have gone home." Sasuke mumbles to himself once he turns around and draws his keys within his pants pocket.

Naruto copies his actions before he comments with, "Ah come on teme, it wasn't that bad if you just would have watched it."

Sasuke merely presses the unlock button, which undos the alarm, and rounds around his car to the driver's seat.

"Good night dobe," Sasuke claims as he open the door of his black Audi S8 and steps in on the driver's seat.

Naruto returns a similar statement, excludes the dobe, and changes it to in his personal moniker for the man on his left.

He whirls around to his personal mode of transportation and that was his orange Kawasaki Ninja 250R motorcycle. He lays his hands on his orange and black helmet with a medium size red swirl on the back that was secure in between the handlebars of his bike.

Naruto overhears the sound of Sasuke's engine cranks up before he zooms down the rows of cars.

'_I can't believe that teme wasn't interested in at least one of the dolls. I mean they were all pretty in their own way.' _Naruto reflects back on his time at the Dollhouse as he sticks the key in to the ignition and cranks up the bike.

'_Even_ _still she stood out among the six of them.' _He notes as he adjusts his side mirrors.

'_I wonder what's Ice real name is...' _ Naruto ponders to himself about Ice's potential government name.

He shakes his head left and right, rolls the bike backward, twists the throttle and whisks out of the parking lot.

2222

"Who's finished already?" Temari questions to the group of girls as she fastens the last button to her cardinal red blazer over her black razorback t-shirt.

"Me," Sakura admits first when she clicks the light to her vanity and hops out of her seat.

"Oh Sakura, I absolutely love your skirt." Ino compliments Sakura's skirt. She wears a coral maxi skirt, a tan brown waist belt, a white strapless tank top, and sepia brown gladiator ankle length sandals.

Sakura gently tugs on the skirt before she retorts, "Oh this? It was actually on sale for about ten dollars."

"It's a cute skirt." Tenten expresses as she adjusts the sleeves on her navy blue shirt. Once she approves of her appearance she flips the lights to her vanity off.

"Ten dear, you look comfortably chic as always." Ino comments as she inspects the brunette haired woman's attire. She dons a navy blue long-sleeve jersey shirt, white boyfriend jeans, and red suede slippers. (**A/N: **She has on Toms)

A smile stretches across her face at the sincere compliment before she thanks the platinum blonde haired, "Thanks Ino dear."

"And just what might you have on over there?" Temari inquires as she directs Sakura and Tenten's attention over to Ino.

Ino whirls her head in their direction with a wide smile apparent on her face, and asserts "You know the usual…as little as possible."

The trio notes Ino's outfit that consist of a sheer violet v-neck quarter sleeve button down dress shirt with a black collar, white shorts, and black ankle strapped lace wedges with a six inch platform.

Sakura casts her gaze over to Hinata and Karin's vanity and asks, "Hey are you two finished yet?"

"I'm done." Hinata voices once she turns the lights off on her vanity and removes herself from her seat.

She was clad in a white tweed boat neck shirt with cap sleeves, silver band at the hip, black leggings and white ballet flats.

"Hold on, I just finished up." Karin shouts as she adjusts her over the waist black corset with orange flowers, dark blue cuffed denim shorts, and burnt orange stilettos.

"And just where do you think you're going Karin?" Ino jests as she places both of her hands on her hips.

"Well _mother_, I'm going to go out to have a good time." Karin replies as she copies the same stance that Ino was in.

"She told you." Temari retorts with three snaps of her finger, which cause all of the girls to break out in to giggles.

The sound of knocks against the girls' dressing room door captures their awareness as they begin to exchange looks with one another.

"Come in," one of the girls holler when the door was slow to open and reveals it was none other then...

2222

"Hello ladies," Suigestu greets the six women that currently stands in front of him once he enters the dressing room.

The girls' laughter quickly cease with the arrival of the silver haired male, who serves as their presonal security for the Dollhouse.

"What're you doing here?" Karin poses once she registers who exactly it was that had walked through the door.

Suigestu judges from the present expressions on the girls' face that he had interrupted one of their precious bonding moments.

At the moment, the mission he was assigned heavily outweighed a sense of an apology for the sudden intrusion.

He releases a sigh, clears his throat, and relays the announcement, "The boss has sent me here because he would like to spend some _quality _time with one of you lovely dolls."

Suigestu merely observe as the girls' scrunch their faces in disgust when he hears Temari verbally state, "That bastard can spend some _quality _time with a bottle of lotion and his right hand."

He silently agrees with the comment but knew he had to get the specific doll that their boss requested for him to deliver or it would be his head on a platter.

"Whoever name I say please follow me with little too no fuss and fight."

'_Who could it be?' _they wonder in anxiousness and nervousness since neither one of the girls wanted to spend _overtime_ at work with their boss.

"The boss has requested the doll name…" Suguiestu concludes the announcement, which cause all of the Dolls, except for the one that was chosen, to take a sharp intake of breath and turn their gaze on to the unlucky doll.

"Please come with me." He merely says as the Doll remains frozen from the shock that the message hits her.

The shock doll could not advance an inch forward so Suigestu strolls over to where she stands, wraps his hand around her upper arm, and starts to guide her up the steps.

"Ah poor girl,"

"I wonder why he would want to see her?"

"I mean as long as it isn't me then I don't care but I still feel bad for her."

"Whew that was close but damn…."


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: **I finally made it to the last fanfiction in the cycle of updates so thank you for being patient for this brand new chapter. But before I begin I try to make it a point to respond to those who send in reviews...

**tedlay: **Thanks and here is your update!

**mike16111995: **I couldn't help but to chuckle at your review because I was able to completely understand it! So here is the next chapter for you!

**Guest (1.28.13): **I'm grateful that you decided to click and read this fanfiction of mines. This is one of those that I plan to finish in hopefully 30 chapters but it depends on the responses that I recieve.

**IWuvAnime: **I know it is but I wanted to build up a little suspension you know to keep people hooked until bam the truth punches you in the face well not you but you get the point. I apperciate your constant reviews as well.

**nhalltheway: **I wonder who it could be too? Trust me, I don't think the girls would like it if you burn down their work place. As for your guess you will just have to continue to read.

Whew, I finally got that done but anywho, here is the long awaited update for Witness Protection Agency!

Sincerely, aisha12894

**2222**

Orochimaru breaks his concentration away from his conversation with one of his many clients when he overhears the sound of a fist rasps against his office door.

"Come in…" He says loud enough for the person on the opposite side to hear as he watches the golden knob twits before the door swings open.

"I brought the doll who you requested for." Suigetsu announces once he crosses the threshold of Orochimaru's office first and steps aside.

When Orochimaru's eyes land on the Doll, a smile stretches across his face before he orders Sugiuestu, "Go and retrieve Jῡgo. You two can prep for the arrival of the new shipment."

A tsk of the tongue emits from the silver haired male as he left to complete the orders that he was just assigned as he whispers an "I told you so."

"Have a seat here," Orochimaru instructs the Doll as he uses one of his hands to guide her sights to where he wanted her to sit.

The Doll idly nears the raven-haired male in front of her as she rests her laurel in the comfortable leather chair.

"Your individual performance was simply spectacular tonight." He compliments the Doll in front of him with the same smile from once she arrives inside of his office.

"Thank you," the Doll thanks her boss as she slightly tugs on her bottoms out of nervousness and tries to find something other than her boss to look at.

Orochimaru leans his cheek on his propped up arm, which causes some strands of his hair to cascades in front of his face, before he issues another compliment. "And you look amazing now."

The Doll once again thanks her boss for the compliment before she shifts in her seat in attempts to get comfortable yet they all ended in failure.

"If you're nervous, I have something here that will calm you down." Orochimaru mentions to the Doll as he removes his cheek from against his hand.

"Uhm no thank you," the Doll refuses the offer but Orochimaru reaches for his desk drawer, pulls it out, removes the contents and tosses it on his desk.

The Doll's eyes grows wide at the sight of small plastic baggies filled with a white substance inside of it that were scatter out on the desk. "Do these belong to you?"

The Doll remains mute once they realize that they had been caught red handed yet Orochimaru speaks up again, "From the looks of it, it has already been watered down and cooked."

Orochimaru removes himself from his seat behind his office desk, circles around to the front, stands behind the Doll and leans toward her ear.

"There's something," he mutters as he pauses in the middle of his statement while he plays with the ends of her hair in between his fingers, "...so much better in my possession. Follow me."

The Doll knew from the house rules that dolls were not permitted to deny anything that the boss specifically ordered for them to do. She scoots to the end of the chair before she rises to her feet was on the surface of the floor.

"Right this way," Orochimaru instructs as he positions his left hand against the Doll's lower back and uses his other arm to guide the both of them.

2222

"Hold on a minute guys," Hinata says to the other four girls as she begins to dig inside of her white duffle bag.

"What's wrong?" Tenten inquires to the indigo haired woman once the others pause and faces Hinata, who searches her bag on her arm.

Hinata sifts through the articles of clothing around in her bag when she realizes that her cellphone was nowhere to be found. "I left my phone in the dressing room."

"Well then do you want us to wait on you or what?" Temari questions as she twirls her bag around right wrist out of boredom.

"You four go on ahead. I'll call you once I find it but it shouldn't take too long." Hinata replies while she zips up her bag, whirls around and heads back inside.

Meanwhile in the warehouse portion of the Dollhouse, Suigetsu and Jῡgo await for the arrival of the new shipment their boss ordered them to pick up for him.

'_He's too quiet right now.' _Jῡgo notes the slight change in Suigetsu typical cut-throat, annoying and mellow demeanor that he was used to seeing.

Before Jῡgo could even question the change in his companion's behavior, a delivery truck drives through the gate and rolls in their direction until it comes to a complete stop.

"It seems as if we have good timing." Orochimaru's voice chimes in as he along with his special Doll walks up to where Suigetsu and Jῡgo were waiting.

Jῡgo hears a 'tsk' from Suigetsu, which makes him realize the reason as to why his silver-haired companion was in the current state that he was in.

'_Ah it's all making sense now.' _Jῡgo concludes as the sound of the truck's engine cuts off before the sights of three individuals hop out.

Orochimaru, the Doll, Suigetsu, and Jῡgo watches the trio of teenagers canter over to them. The quad notice that there was a young man with spiky dark hair, who wears a brown shirt with two black stripes and three kanji characters present on the front, snake printed pants and black combat boots. A girl with very long black hair that was tied with a violet ribbon near the end, she wore a pale green vest as her choice for her top. Then there was this boy with bandages covering his entire body except for his left eye and a oversized poncho.

2222

"Ah there you are!" Hinata proclaims to no one in particular as she unlocks her touchscreen phone and presses Temari's contact information.

Her phone dials out until the sound of the receiving end picks up, "I found it. Are you all already there?"

"We just got a cab so you're not too far behind us." Temari informs Hinata, who steps up the small set of stairs in the Dolls' dressing room.

Hinata releases a sigh of relief when she hears how close the girls were to her, "I will be on my way then."

She clicks the red button that ends the phone call with Temari as she exits from the dressing room. It was at that time she had the sudden urge to use the restroom.

'_I guess that mean that the water I drank earlier is finally regulating my systems.' _Hinata thinks as she rounds the corner and heads in the direction of the restroom.

Once she enters inside of the restroom, she quickly selects an empty stall and proceeds to use the toilet.

She overhears a voice from the crack window in the restroom instructs a group of people, "Zaku, Dosu and Kin start unloading the truck. Suigetsu and Jῡgo help them."

'_I know Suigetsu and Jῡgo but who are Zaku, Dosu, and Kin?' _Hinata wonders to herself since she was not familiar with the last three names.

'_They definitely don't work at the Dollhouse or I would have at least now their names.' _She inwardly comments since she personally knew all of her coworkers.

"Would you all like to hear a story?" the masculine voice, who issues out the instructions earlier, poses to the group as they remain mute.

"Suigetsu and Jῡgo, do you know how much I value loyalty right? And how I vehemently detest liars and thieves whenever I run my operation?"

"So will someone explain to me how one of my safe houses was discovered by the _KDEA_?" Orochimaru calmly probes his subordinates with an unreadable expression on her face.

_'__The KDEA, as in the Konoha Drug Enforcement Agency,' _She calls to mind the organization's name with those familiar acronym.

_ 'Why would the boss worry about them?' _Hinata deliberates to herself.

_'Unless…' _Hinata stifles a gasps from her mouth with both of her hands once she realizes that their boss have dirty hands and runs an illegal business.

_'__Is the Dollhouse a cover up for his drugs?' _She considers the idea of their boss using their workplace to traffic drugs.

"And if I do recall from my faded memory, that that house hadn't been hit ever since I stashed my supply over there until it was included a part of your delivery route, now."

'_This is crazy! What should I do?' _Hinata thought since her feet was glued to her current position as she continues to listen in to the conversation outside.

"Since I feel that I shouldn't stain my hands with unfit individuals, I will let Kimimaro handle this for me."

"Oh Kimimaro…" he calls out to somone name Kimimaro in a sing-song manner.

'_What does he mean by stain his hands with unfit individuals? Who is this Kimimaro?' _She racks her brain for the name Kimimaro but draws a total blank.

Suigetsu recognizes the figure, who emerges from the dark alley, as none other than Orochimaru's personal hitman.

_'So that's why he was here earlier because Orochimaru had personally called him in.' _He deduces before he returns his attention to the task at hand.

"Are these the individuals that you need for me to take care of?" Hinata can hear a masculine voice asks in a robotic tone.

The only thing Hinata could hear next was a brief silence before her boss speaks, "Suigetsu and Jῡgo double time this load, take these idiots somewhere else, get rid of the truck and report back to me." Her boss rattles off a list of orders for Suigetsu and Jῡgo to complete.

"...and be quick about it." Orochimaru adds while he peers over his shoulder at the pair before he leaves them to their task.

'_I need to call the police but I have to get out of her first without being spotted.' _ She analyzes as she was slow to inch her way to the women's restroom door.

Hinata sticks her head out of the door and shifts her vision from left and right before she deems the hall clear.

"I can't believe that we're got to do this on our own now!" Hinata listens to Suigetsu's loud voice from the opposite end of the hall complains.

'_Oh crap…' _she thinks when her feet stealthily guides her to what she hopefully thought was a safe place.

"Are you upset because of that or is it because of _who_ he has currently by his side?" Jῡgo poses to his silver haired companion as he critically watches for the slightest reaction that would prove he was lying.

"He can choose whichever Doll he wants. They're all at his disposal or better yet every his beck and call." Suigetsu retorts with a 'tsk' of his tongue.

Jῡgo prolongs his sights on his friend before he fires another question his direction, "...but you care about this _one_ don't you?"

"It doesn't matter whether or not I care about her. We have to get this done or we will be like Zaku, Dosu and Kin." He redirects their attention to more pressing matters.

"Fine then," Jῡgo temporarily submits to the silver haired male's request.

Hinata manages to make it pass the bar when she could no longer hear Suigetsu and Jῡgo voices she starts to quietly panic.

'_Are they gone?' _she wonders as she slowly sticks her from behind the bar to survey her surroundings once and twice to make sure the coast was clear.

The sight of the front door provides a sense of relief for her mind as she decides to remain low to the ground and starts to crawls the rest of the way.

'_Whew...that was a close one there.' _She deems as she eases her tense shoulders right before she overhears someone call her name.

Hinata immediately tenses up at the sound of her name be call when she repeats, _'Just act your normal self.'_

Her gaze lands on Suigetsu and Jῡgo, who pushes two, various size carts, when Suigetsu identify himself as the the source who called her name.

"Hey there," she returns the greeting with a small smile present on her face while her eyes were shut. Her hands tightly clutches her duffle bag handle out of nervousness.

"Where are the other Dolls?" Jῡgo inquires once the duo halt in front of the Dollhouse in order to converse with Hinata.

Hinata knew she had to maintain eye contact with one of the two or they would have figured out that she was aware of what they were really doing during the afterhours of the Dollhouse.

'_You have to think up of a good lie but don't make it to obvious that you know.' _She inwardly thinks to herself when she verbalizes, "The taxi just picked them up and there wasn't enough room for me to fit."

Jῡgo and Suigetsu exchange looks with one another before Suigetsu speaks up again, "Oh that's too bad…would you look at that you have good timing, there's a cab now."

Hinata silently thanks the taxi cab driver, who bails her out of a potentially ugly situation if the pair were to fire off more questions.

She physically forces her body not to quickly dive for the cab's door handle out of fear from being caught. Somehow, she manages to cover the short distance between her and the cab in a moderate stride.

"See you two later," Hinata waves the pair of men off, who just merely waves at her until the cab drives away from the curb.

"Well that was _awfully_ nice of you." Jῡgo comments, which earns him a 'tsk' from the male who stands off to his right.

"We already wasted about five minutes just from standing around here. Let's hurry up and get started." Suigetsu reminds Jῡgo about their job assign to them by Orochimaru.

'_He's definitely upset.' _Jῡgo concludes after he analyzes Suigetsu irate actions toward.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: To my loyal fans thank you for enduring the wait for this chapter. I did not realize how popular this story has become ever since I uploaded the first chapter. I appericate the continous support. One more heads up, I have been updating in a cycle but that will chance once I complete one of my fanfics. So the wait may not be as long as this one.**

**Thanks, **

**Aisha12894**

**2222**

The girls, excluding Hinata, patiently waits outside of a wooden built restaurant with the name "Ichiraku's Ramen" position at the top of a medium size wooden roof.

"How long did Hinata say she was going to be?" Ino curiously poses as she rests one of her hands against her right hip.

"If you're _that_ hungry why don't you go in and reserve us a table?" Temari snaps at the platinum blonde before she checks her phone again to see if Hinata had called her.

Ino releases a "huff" noise when she swivels around and struts inside of the restaurant as a gentleman holds the door open for her to enter.

Sakura studies the expression on Ino's face after she removes herself from the group and voices, "I'll go in with her. I hope she don't unleash her rage on someone else."

"Please do…because I actually like coming to eat here." Tenten comments with a solemn expression on her face as she shakes her head left and right.

Sakura nods her head in agreement and leaves Temari and Tenten outside of Ichiraku's as she follows behind a pissed off Ino.

"You know she's upset because she wants all of our attention on her new status of being engaged." Temari mentions as she fiddles through the incoming calls on her cell phone.

Tenten shrugs her shoulders up and down before she responses with, "I would be too. I mean it's not every day that someone pops the big question especially to a girl like Ino."

Temari releases a sigh, breaks her concentration away from her phone, faces Tenten, and replies, "I am truly happy for the girl but right now I'm more concerned about Hinata's safety."

The ringtone of "Dance in the Dark" (**A/N: Lady Gaga**) starts to blare, which signals the blonde that the call was from Hinata, "Hello? Hinata, where are you?"

Tenten merely watches as Temari chats with Hinata over the phone for a couple of seconds before she hangs up.

"So where is she now?" Tenten inquires with an apparent expression of concern present on her face.

Temari removes her cell phone from the side of her ear just in time to hear Tenten's question, "She said she caught a cab and is on the way as we speak."

"Good." The women mutters to themselves while they both release a sigh of relief at the good news

"Are you ready to head in now?" Tenten inquires as she gestures one of her hands toward the entrance and exit of Ichiraku's.

Temari nods her head before the two women venture inside of the medium size restaurant.

'_For some reason…I have this bad feeling all of a sudden about Hinata.' _Temari inwardly conceives to herself.

**2222**

Hinata releases a deep sigh as she attempts to ease in the backseat of the cab yet the weight of the information she witnessed from earlier still heavily weighed on her mind.

'_I can't believe that even happened!' _she thinks in disbelief once she manages to process the conversations she had overheard while she was inside of the restroom.

She glances down at her shaking hand when she wonders in shock, _'How was I even able to sound calm on the phone just now?'_

Hinata uses her other hand to grasp the shaking hand but her nerves refuse to cooperate with her and now both of her hands begin to shake as well.

'_I have to find a way to calm myself down…' _she considers yet her brain could not even process what it was that she just gotten herself mixed up in.

'_To think that the Dollhouse was used as a safe house for drugs._' she inwardly weighs to herself when she suddenly feels the cab jump from driving over a pothole in the street.

"eek" unknowingly emits from her mouth after she covers the crown of her head with her hands from colliding with the ceiling of the cab.

She releases yet another sigh as it seems to have some type of calming effect for her racing heart as she continues to focus in on her breathing patterns.

'_I'll feel better once I get around the girls.' _She inwardly hopes that her thought would proven truthful.

2222

Naruto awakes to the sound of his stomach loudly growling at him for not properly feeding. It was then that he suddenly remembered that he had not bought anything to eat for dinner.

He rubs his right eye with the side of his palm and casts his gaze in the direction of where his alarm clock was position.

'_Ichiraku's should still be open.'_ he recalls as his empty stomach seems to agree with his thought once he rolls out of his bed.

He adjusts his dark orange sweatpants, stretches his slightly tense muscles, stands up and reaches out until his fingertips brushes against the white t-shirt that lies against the body of the chair.

'_I can't forget the helmet.' _He reminds himself as he grabs a black helmet with an orange whirlpool swirl stickered in the middle of the lower portion along with a similar colored jacket. He slips his feet within a pair of black tennis shoes.

Naruto strolls to the front door of his apartment and grabs the set of keys that dangles off of the holder attach to the side of the door.

Once he makes it outside and down the set of stairs that lead to the parking lot, his mind travels back to a certain indigo haired woman with the pearly white eyes.

'_She is so beautiful.' _He mentally notes as he treks toward his orange and black Kawasaki Ninja 250R when another thought pops up in his head, _'I wonder if she's dating anybody?'_

Naruto kicks his leg over the opposite side of the bike, straddles the seat, places the jacket on, secures the straps to his helmet, sticks the key in the ignition, and cranks up the bike.

'_I hope I will be able to see her again.' _He silently hopes to himself before he motors out of his parking spot and gases the bike forward.

**2222**

"We have arrived at your destination, ma'am." The taxi cab driver announces to Hinata, who was zoned out in the backseat of the taxi.

Hinata removes her eyes from the sights of Ichiraku's outside and casts them in the direction of the taxi cab driver. "Oh that's right…"

She unzips her duffle bag, digs out her wallet and pays for the fare, which earns her a "Thank you ma'am" from the driver.

Hinata quickly emerges from within the cab and spots Temari, who walks out of the restaurant and starts to search for Hinata.

"I'm over here, Tem." She declares after she was able to swallow a dry lump that had formed in her throat during her calming exercises.

Temari immediately cuts her gaze over toward the indigo haired woman when she overheard a nickname that very few people were permitted to call her.

"Come on, Ino already got us a table." She informs Hinata as she waves one of her hands toward her body as signal for her to come on over.

Hinata nods her head and follows the dirty blonde haired woman since she serves as her guide as she leads her in the direction of their table.

"Blondie managed to get us one of the best seats in the house." Temari jokes once she takes a seat next to Tenten while Hinata pulls up a chair to the joined tables.

Ino breaks away from the menu, flashes Temari a frown, mumbles under her breath, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever," and returns her gaze back to the menu in front of her.

Tenten nudges Temari in order to capture her attention and whispers to her, "I think we should toast to Ino's engagement. It will get her spirits back up."

"Why that's a splendid idea, Tenten." She replies before she turns, flags down someone, and murmurs her request.

"So ladies what has been going in your life? Sakura go on and start us off." Temari speaks to the group when her focus returns back to the ladies in front of her.

Sakura breaks her concentration away from Ino in order to answer the question, "Well as you know medical school tuition is a hassle but I have been saving up everything that I've earned. So now, I have enough funds for a couple of more years without being in debt."

"Ah congrats Sakura! We all know how much that means to you." Tenten was the first to response to Sakura's answer.

"Thanks guys! Those exams are tough but I manage to get good grades out of the classes." She mentions with a small smile on her face.

Hinata felt she should at least join in on the conversation instead of focusing on what happened at the Dollhouse once the boss thought everyone had left.

"You would make a wonderful doctor one day, Sakura-chan." She chimes in, which earns looks from the others.

A blush of embarrassment tints Sakura's cheeks when she hears Hinata's comment, "You really think so, Hinata-chan?"

Hinata merely nods her head up and down with a small smile present on her face, which causes one of the widest smiles to appear on Sakura's face.

"Enough of me, Tenten, how's it on your end? " Sakura redirects the question on to the brunette haired woman in front of her.

"A tad bit stress but hey that's normal when you have an energized toddler, who likes to run throughout the apartment all day." She answers while she stifles a giggle at the mention of her son.

"Doesn't Tao have a birthday coming up soon?" Temari inquires about Tao's date of birth.

A smile similar to Sakura's materalizes on Tenten's face now, "You're right. In a couple of more weeks, my little boy will be five years old."

The mention of parenthood causes Hinata to quietly ponder to herself about her own parents, _'Do they miss me as much as I miss them?'_

"Five?! Time does fly by when you're a parent." Sakura mentions to the group but to Tenten in particular.

This cause Hinata to think about her younger sister, _'Hanabi should be turning fifteen now and in her high school studies.'_

"It does Sakura. Yes it does, but you know you all will of course be invited to the party." She reminds them since it became somewhat of a tradition for the girls to attend little Tao's birthday parties.

"You know we won't miss it for the world Ten." Temari excitingly states with a small smile present on her face.

"So what's new on your end Temari?" Tenten inquires about Temari's social life away from work.

She peers at each girls' face with the same smile she had flashed to Tenten still on her, "Well if you must know…I have a hot sexy man waiting for me when I get home."

The girls' faces shift to expressions of shock as Temari could no longer contain her laughter, "You're faces….are absolutely…priceless."

Once it finally sunk in that Temari was only joking the others, excluding a bummed out Ino, breaks out in to laughter.

"I mean of course with keeping the paperwork in order for Kankuro whenever he would ask me too. Oh and I just joined a local shoji tournament with a nice chunk of money for the prize winner." She informs them of what was going on in her life.

"Good luck and win that money girl." Sakura proclaims in an ecstatic tone of speaking.

"You know that's what I plan to do and bring that jackpot home to mama." Temari agrees with Sakura as she repeatedly rubs the tips of her fingers across her thumb.

A slightly distracted Hinata overhears someone call her name as she returns her focus back on to the girls in front of her.

'_Why is everyone looking at me?' _she inwardly questions herself before she hears Temari speaks, "So Hinata, how's life been treating you?"

Images of earlier events came flooding from her memory banks as she fixes her mouth to say something about what happened instead it came out, "Pretty fairly."

The expressions on Sakura, Tenten and Temari's face was one of "is that all or is there more that you would like to tell us," rather than being satisfied with her answer.

'_Come Hinata think up of something quick…oh wait I got it!' _"I was thinking about adopting some type of animal but I don't know what I want yet."

Her comment appears to have successfully place the girls' curiosity at bay for the moment, _'Whew that was a close one.'_

"You should adopt probably adopt a dog, they're quite loyal you know." Sakura mentions, which causes Ino to snort at her comment and mutters a "Yeah right…"

"Uhm guys…" Hinata speaks up once the attention was off of her. "I'm going to see what they're serving at the grill."

"Oh tell me if the special for tonight is shrimp or chicken." Tenten poses to Hinata once she removes herself from the table. "Sure."

The sound of Ichiraku's door opens and closes…


	10. Chapter 10

Naruto enters Ichiraku's restaurant where his nostrils was instantly met with the aroma of hot steaming Ramen noodles and various Japanese dishes cooking.

'_It smells good as usual in here.' _He thinks to himself as his stomach agrees with him for the second time of the night.

He greets a couple of familiar faces by their respective names since Ichiraku's was his absolute favorite place to eat. _'I still don't get how that teme couldn't enjoy quality home cooked meals like this.' _

Naruto immediately rid his thoughts of his friend when he unknowingly bumps in to a server, who nimbly steadies a tray of a large jar of sake along along with cups.

'_It looks like someone is trying to get wasted tonight if they're by themselves.' _He mentally notes after he judges the size of the sake jug on the tray.

Naruto's eyes land on the ultimate prize that his stomach was having a late-night craving for…Ichiraku's signature Ramen.

'_No matter where I go Ramen isn't the same as it is at Ichiarku's.'_ he asserts as a wide smile spreads across his face from anticipation of devouring such delicious cuisine.

Naruto quickly approaches the bar once he immediately spots a vacant stool at the usually busy bar. "Old man,"

The man behind the grill briefly breaks his concentration away from the food when he hears his nickname from his most valued customer…Uzumaki, Naruto.

"Ah, Naruto, I just got done steaming some fresh noodles out of the pack." He curtly replies as a small quaint smile materializes across his face.

"Oui…I guess my timing is starting to get perfect. I'm ready for my first bowl old man." Naruto states as he removes the stool from underneath the wooden island and positions his bottom on the black cushion.

The old man nods his head forward at the young man's response before he concentrations on the customer in front of him "I'll be right back miss."

Naruto brings the palms of his hands together and rubs them out of anxiousness for a bowl of Ichiraku's ramen. _'I'm going to eat until my stomach croaks.'_

"Uhm excuse me, can I ask you a question?" a gentle feminine voice catches Naruto's attention, which causes him to turn his head in their direction.

2222

Suigestu and Jῡgo tread inside of their boss, Lord Orochimaru, office without executing a single knock to announce their arrival. That decision was something that the pair would soon come to regret.

There right in front of their very own eyes was the doll known as Rose straddles Orochimaru's lower region with her top remove and off to the side. Her lower half was shielded by the wooden desk while both of her hands was held behind her head.

It took every fiber in Suigestu's body not to bound over the desk and beat the living shit out of Lord Orochimaru. He struggles to speak but manages to utter "Lord Orchimaru…"

Lord Orochimaru's piercing golden gaze lands on him once he spins the chair to his right side so he could get a better look at Suigestu and Jῡgo.

It was then that the two bodyguards sight were bombard with a full view of a barely clad Rose, whose only undergarments were her lacy pink thongs which reveal a topless Orochimaru.

Suigestu roughly bites his tongue and tightly clenches his fists to prevent himself from voicing his opinion of the ungodly sight before him. Not only that but he had the sudden feeling to release the bile that was forming in his throat.

"We finished unloading the stockpile from the truck to the warehouse." He announces as he attempts to prevent venom from being present in his tone.

A satisfactory grin stretches across his rather pale face before he congratulates them with, "Excellent work you two! I knew you two could get the job done."

"There's nothing else that I need from you two tonight. So you're free to enjoy your night as much as I will mines." He comments, which causes Rose to giggle at the statement.

"Thank you sir." Jῡgo thanks their boss for the both of them. He was aware that if Suigestu remains where he was any longer, he would have murder Lord Orochimaru right then and there.

"Come on Suigestu," He quietly urges the silver haired male to move yet luckily for him he verbally complies so it would not appear as insubordination.

The sound of Rose's laughter echoes throughout his head when he overhears something else from the doll, "See you later Jῡgo and Suigestu."

2222

Naruto turns his head until his eyes connect with another pair of eyes that were white pupils, a particularly odd color, that appears familiar to him.

It was not until he adjusts his sights to see a woman around five foot two with long straight indigo colored hair standing in front of him.

Her skin was a milky creme color, which compliments her unique eye color that radiates with innocence within her gaze. She wears a white v-neck shirt that provide a rather tempting peek at her chest region along with some grey pants and white sandals.

If he did not know any better he would have thought that she was some kind of angel from all the white she was clad in.

"Do you know what the special is for tonight?" Hinata inquires to the blonde haired young man, who appears to be in a daze.

'_It's her! Why am I not saying anything to her?' _he quickly contemplates to himself since the woman that stands before him was none other than the woman who plagues his every thoughts ever since he witnesses her performance.

His mind conjures up saying something along the line of, "I'll take you as the special," but realizes that that was far too direct and weird yet nevertheless he had to make conversation with her.

"Sorry, but I don't know the special for tonight." He replies to the woman's question, who then "Thanks" him for answering her question.

'_Stupid' _was continuously repeated as he mentally slaps himself in the forehead for not saying anything cooler to the beautiful young woman.

"That's too bad. Tenten really wanted some grilled shrimp tonight." She mutters to herself as she focuses in on the metallic grill in front of her.

Naruto notices that she was about to make a move to leave when he stops her with, "...but you should try the house special. I guarantee you it beats anything else on the menu."

It was then that she got a good look at the man, who she had asked a question from earlier. He had bright blonde hair that rivals that of the sun with cerulean blue eyes that seem to reflect the deepest parts of the oceans.

'_Are those whiskers on his face?' _she ponders to herself as she slightly squints her eyes and notices three small groves on each side of his cheek.

His tanned skin appears to have had a healthy dose of exposure to the sun rather than being sunburn.

He wore an orange and black jacket with a loose fitting black t-shirt underneath it along with a long pair of dark orange cargo sweatpants, a pair of black tennis shoes but what catches her eyes was the necklace that hangs from his neck.

It was a sliver of a green gem, specifically a jade or an emerald, with two silver circular spheres on the opposite ends of one another.

She breaks her concentration away from the young man so she would not seem as if she was staring a hole through him, which would be rude of her.

"House Special" Hinata reads the bold red print before she reads "Ramen Noodles" underneath the bold font.

"They're the best in the entire world! I get them every time I come in here." He confesses to the woman when another voice can be heard, "More like every day that you come in here."

A now embarrassed Naruto had a small pink tint spread across his face when he replies with his hands all over the place, "Old man, how could you be so nosy."

Hinata could not help but get a kick out the blonde haired man's impish behavior of being and tries to stifle her laughter with one of her hands.

"At least you got her to laugh." He quietly whispers to him when he slides a bowl of his famous Ramen in front of the blushing blonde.

"Nobody asked for your comment, old man." Naruto softly mutters back to the older man, who merely ignores the statement and returns to the grill.

A toothy grin appears on his face since he watches the beautiful woman in front of him laugh a very melodious laugh.

"I'm glad that you find that so funny." He mentions in a playful hurt tone, which causes Hinata to cease in her laughter and flashes him an apologetic expression.

"You're right. It wasn't that nice of me to laugh at you." She apologizes to the young man, who appears to be more than willing to forgive her for her transgression.

"It wouldn't be fair of me to accept such an apology…" he pauses in the middle of his sentence when he observes her face shift from joy to one of awe, "…without knowing the name of a beautiful woman such as yourself."

Now it was Hianta's turn to blush out of embarrassment, _'How could I have forgotten to tell him my name?' _

"My name is Hinata." She introduces herself with a small smile visible on her face. _'The old man's right…at least I got her to laugh and smile at me.'_ "Now it wouldn't be polite if you don't return the gesture." She reminds him, which surfaces him out of his daze.

"You're absolutely right! Now where are _my_ manners? Uzumaki, Naruto, it's nice to meet you Hinata." He introduces himself to her as he extends his hand out to her.

At first Naruto was scared that the gesture of contact was all too sudden for the indigo haired maiden but she proved him wrong when she captured his hand within hers. "It's nice to meet you too, Uzumaki, Naruto."

Meanwhile at the table with Ino, Sakura, Tenten and Temari, Sakura... the girls were trying to cheer Ino up when Temari points out their server with a jug of sake.

"Yeah that's ours! We're right over here!" She shouts out while she raises both of her hands to flag the server down.

The server faces their direction, strolls up to them and settles the tray on the table where Temari and Ino sit. "Enjoy the rest of your meal here, ladies."

"Why thank you." Sakura chimes in before the server left them alone to their large jug of sake.

"I guess we do have a lot of celebrating to do since Temari bought an entire jug full of alcohol." Tenten comments as she surveys the particular size of their container.

A wide smile materializes on her face as she begins to slide the drinking cups around to the girls, except one.

"That's because we have a _lot_ going on in our lives that we can drink. Besides, I thought a jug would be appropriate for the occasion instead of the teeny tiny bottles they normally give out." Temari explains why she chose that size for their evening out.

Ino perks up at the sight of alcohol and tries to reach out for the jug only to receive a swat of the hand by Temari. "You didn't participate so you miss out on the first rounds of sake."

She rolls her eyes at Temari before she voices her opinion, "That's because you didn't even bother to ask me what was going in my life."

Temari concentrates on to the platinum blonde haired girl in front of her, "We asked you but since you acted like such a wet blanket, you sighed, ignored us and returned your attention to the menu. Did she not?"

Ino observes as Sakura and Tenten simultaneously nod their heads forward, which causes Ino to divert her sights back to the dirty blonde haired woman in front of her. "Fine, I miss the first round."

This seem to put another smile on her face, "See now was that so hard, Ino dear?"

A "humph, whatever," emits from the platinum blonde when she overhears Temari adds, "I was going to let you in on it either way."

For the first time that night, an honest smile was apparent on Ino Yamanaka's face, "There's the Ino, we all know and love!" Sakura joyful proclaims with happiness evident on her face.

"Thank Kami-sama because I was about to take that other Ino and drop her." Temari expresses relief that Ino was back to her normal snobby and self-centered way.

"Sorry guys if I ruined our night but now I'm ready to drink and celebrate my life to the fullest!" Ino declares as she grabs and lifts her empty drinking cup in the air.

"Wait a minute…" Tenten suddenly speaks up as the girls turn their attention toward her. "What's wrong Tenten?"

"We can't start the toast without our precious Hinata." She reminds the girls when Ino cuts her eyes over to the bar portion of the restaurant.

"Well it seems as if she's currently occupied at the moment." Ino claims as she checks each of the girls' facial expressions.


End file.
